Deathwhisper Island
by ToothlessFuture
Summary: Hiccup goes for a mission to retrieve vitally important herbs from the infamous Deathwhisper Island. What happens when everything goes wrong? Rated T for violence. Might include death of a character.
1. Blizzard

**A/N: This is my first fanfic, I hope you like it. The first chapter is kinda short but it does it job... I hope.**

**I had some hard time finding the right words as english isn't my native language and my vocabulary is somewhat limited, but I hope it isn't too visible.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own HTTYD, quite unfortunately.**

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**Chapter 1: Blizzard**

_There's probably more snow than air in the sky_, thought Hiccup, as he could only see few meters ahead of him. His face and hair was wet from melting snow (and dragon blood, but it's a long story) and was now freezing in the wind, and he generally was feeling pretty cold and not very comfortable.

"Come on buddy, we have to get there faster than this," he cried.

He couldn't really hear the growl Toothless gave to him as an answer; the wind was blowing so strong. In fact, he hardly even heard his own words. The Night Fury was struggling only to stay in the air, and moving forward, with decent speed, was even harder.

The ride on the dragon's back was rough and bumpy, nothing like Hiccup has used to in his flights with Toothless before. But to be honest, they had never been in air during a storm, and definitely not during a snowstorm. It was scary to see, or even worse, _feel_ how the wind was throwing the dragon from side to side and the sudden drops of altitude was probably the worst. Especially while being aware that treetops were not-so-far below, they just couldn't be seen from all the snow.

_How can everything go so wrong so quick_, Hiccup wondered, _and just because I wanted to… I don't know… maintain my status or something… I should have known better._

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**Few days earlier:  
**

The great hall of Berk was full of Vikings. Winter was almost there, and Stoick the Vast was giving out orders regarding the final preparations for winter.

Hiccup was sitting in a corner, not really listening to what his dad was saying. No, all he could think at the moment was dragons. After he and Toothless had killed the Red Death, things had certainly gone for better. Now, most of the villagers tried to train their own dragon, and Hiccup  
was trying to teach them.

Highly emphasizing the word _trying_. It would've been easier to teach rocks to walk than get those stubborn, prejudiced Vikings to trust their dragons. Trust was the most important thing in training a dragon, and without trust the results were just weak. Sure Hiccup understood that it was not easy for them to try and trust creatures that they had killed – and which had killed them - for their entire life.

There was no such a trouble with the younger Vikings like Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs or the twins, and they had already formed pretty strong bonds with their dragons. What came to the adults, well, few of them was in the stage of learning to fly with their dragons, but most of them was still in the very beginnings of the process. And every single one had the problem of trying to control their dragons far too strictly, which led into different sized conflicts between the dragon and its rider, accidents and just generally saying: failures.

The Vikings really didn't like failing and had became frustrated, and Hiccup had already lost some of the respect he had gained as a "Dragon Master" after killing the Red Death.

Time was running out: some of the villagers had totally lost their patience and wanted to evict the dragons, thinking they were just a nuisance that took lots of food and gave nothing in return. If he couldn't make up something to show the dragons really were useful _when treated right, _he might end up in his previous status in the village: a failure.

"One final thing", said Stoick loudly, waking Hiccup from his thoughts. "Our Gloomweed supplies are running low. To avoid unnecessary deaths, a ship has to be sent towards the Deathwhisper Island tomorrow, to fill our supplies of that herb. Any volunteers for the trip?"

Hiccup looked around, and wasn't surprised at all by the fact that nobody volunteered. Usually only about half of the men who went to the island returned. And now there was also the risk of snowstorms.

There it was. This was what he had been waiting for; an answer to his problem. He slowly raised his hand and saw his dad's eyes go round in amazement.

"I- I have a suggestion", Hiccup said.

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**Present time:**

_I'll fix everything, I have to._

Only thing preventing him from doing that was this damn blizzard. They had been in the air only about ten minutes, and that was ten minutes too long. Hiccup knew there was no playing with snowstorms. Even Toothless' black, scaly hide felt cold. Or would have felt, if he'd still had some feel in his fingers.

No matter how hard he wanted to correct his mistake, freezing to death wasn't going to help his friends.

"Alright buddy, we'll have to land, or I'll turn into icicle."

Toothless slightly nodded his head and started to descend. It was then when Hiccup noticed that the dragon's artificial tailfin didn't respond to his pedal's movements. It had probably frozen still.

_Great. Crash-landing into snowy mountain is something I have always wanted to do._

Toothless screamed when he noticed he didn't have control over the flight anymore. Hiccup quickly pressed himself against Toothless to avoid getting hurt. Seconds later they hit the ground.

It wasn't as rough as Hiccup had expected, thanks to the thick layer of snow.

"Are you alright?" he asked his dragon.

The Night Fury shook snow off its head and then grinned.

Hiccup smiled back. "Good. Now, where are we?" He looked around. The visibility was better now when they weren't moving. Still not great though. "Let's see… no trees, we have to be near the top. Maybe we should – whoa!"

Without the safety harness Hiccup would've certainly fallen from the dragons back when it suddenly took a giant leap and began to run.

"Wha- what is it, Toothless?" Hiccup asked after regaining balance. At the same moment he noticed what his dragon had seen. Not so far ahead in the icy cliffside was clearly an entrance to a cave. Better yet, there was some round shields standing at the both sides of the entrance.

Toothless stopped in front of the cave entrance. The dragon was clearly proud of his achievement. He looked at Hiccup, waiting for compliments.

Hiccup patted the dragon's head. "Wow, you really are amazing; did you know that, bud?"

Judging by his expression, Toothless apparently knew it.

"Okay, we should go in as we really don't have time to waste. Besides…" Hiccup sneezed, "I'm really catching cold if I sit here any longer."

_I swear we will get back in time… we won't let you down._

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**OK here it was. Wanna read more? There's the review button just below; click it and tell your opinion :)**


	2. Cave

**A/N: So the second chapter is up; this will shed some light to the earlier events, enjoy.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own HTTYD.**

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**Chapter 2: Cave**

Hiccup removed the safety harness and jumped down from the dragon's back, only to lose his balance as soon as his legs touched the ground and thus falling face first in snow. He got some snow under his shirt in the process, and there were only few things Hiccup found more uncomfortable than feeling snow to melt on his skin.

"I'm okay", he said to his worried-looking friend. "Really, I'm all fine." But he was nevertheless happy when Toothless helped him to get up.

It wasn't easy to walk in a thick layer of snow, especially when you are freezing and your other leg is made of wood and iron. That's why Hiccup would've fallen in snow again if Toothless hadn't ducked his head in front of him.

The Night Fury was a little annoyed by the fact the boy had to jump into the snow when it was so hard for him to walk. But, he was also worried of his human's current condition, and caringly helped the boy to walk until there was no more snow on the ground, and Hiccup was able to walk on his own without needing to lean against the dragon.

When they were good thirty meters inside, Toothless proceeded to walk in circle while breathing fire on ground. After done with heating the ground, the black dragon threw a very demanding look towards Hiccup, pointing at the warm spot on the cave floor.

"Uh – thanks bud but we really don't have time to sit down right now", Hiccup said, his teeth clattering in cold.

Toothless snorted. His human was so incredibly stubborn – and stupid – sometimes. With one leap he jumped right in front of Hiccup, looking straight into his eyes.

Now, looking at the narrowed eyes of a Night Fury when its face is only few inches from yours, is rather... impressive. Hiccup gulped.

Just to be sure the boy didn't miss his meaning, Toothless made a low, threatening growl.

Not even Hiccup was thick-headed enough to ignore that method of convincing, and after few seconds of thinking the young Viking gave up.

"Alright, you won. But no longer than five minutes of rest, then we have to continue, right?"

Toothless purred, satisfied in his success.

The dragon walked few times around the flamed spot and then lied down. Hiccup sat down next to him, leaning his back against Toothless. He scratched the dragon behind its ear. It really was warm and comfortable to lie there, under the protective wing of his draconic friend.

_I didn't realize I was so tired, maybe I could allow myself to close eyes for few minutes…_

Toothless curled his tail around the boy after he had apparently fallen asleep. Then he closed his eyes too, ignoring the noises the snowstorm made outside.

_I want to save them as much as you do, little one, but your health is more important than anything else, no matter if you like it or not_, was dragon's final thought before falling asleep.

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**One hour earlier:**

Hiccup just stared at the fire. After riding the whole day on Toothless he was _very_ tired. So was Toothless, the other Viking teens and their dragons. Only Fishlegs seemed to have some energy left, as he was talking nonstop. In fact, he had been talking with no break since Hiccup had asked him to take part in their little task. Little task of getting some Gloomweed from the infamous Deathwhisper Island; only place where the herb was known to grow at.

"Did you know that this island is named after dragons that only live here: the Whispering Deaths? These dragons are bad flyers so they can't leave the island, but they are very stealthy and bloodthirsty, thus they are still classified as…"

_Extremely dangerous… yeah I know. I wish he wouldn't tell the same things over and over again._

It was not that Hiccup didn't like to talk with Fishlegs, no, he enjoyed talking about dragons with the large boy, but he was just so tired at the moment that he only wanted him to be quiet.

Hiccup turned around to look at Toothless, who was sleeping behind him. The dragon had hidden his head under his wing and his tail was curled in front of him. Hiccup had to note that it was really cute sight. He wouldn't dare to say that to the proud dragon, though, as he might get offended, and offending a Night Fury was not very smart thing to do, no matter if it was your best friend.

Next to Toothless were three more sleepers; them being Horrorcow, Fishlegs' Gronckle, and Fireworm and Snotlout, latter sleeping under former's wing. That way the slow-paced snowfall there was didn't matter to either of them. Still, if it'd turn into a real blizzard they'd have to make some other sleeping arrangements, which would include lots of dragon fire…

Hiccup slowly turned his attention to Daggermouth, who was spitting fire on the wet logs Astrid had just added to their campfire. Thanks to the extreme hotness of Nadder's fire, the wood began to burn happily. Fire wasn't still big enough to keep them warm taking in account the snowing there was, but Ruffnut and Sparky should return soon from their firewood-search trip.

Fishlegs was still babbling and didn't even seem to notice that nobody listened to him.

_Isn't he tired at all? My ears really need some rest…_

It was then when Hiccup noticed something weird. There were some white dots hovering behind Fishlegs, forming a circle above his head. Then the circle made of white dots began to grow larger, and another white-dot circle appeared inside the first. The second circle enlarged too and third one appeared, then fourth, and fifth, and…!

"Get down!" Hiccup yelled and jumped towards Fishlegs, tackling the large boy on the ground.

In a blink of an eye seven rows of razor-sharp teeth snapped together at the place where Fishlegs' head had been.

"Whispering Death!" Fishlegs screamed, with a terrified look on his face.

After that moment, it was all chaos.

Tuffnut was first to react: he quickly grabbed his spear and threw it towards the attacking dragon. Unfortunately he missed, but managed to get the Death's attention on himself. It made some hissing, whispering noises and crept towards Tuffnut, ignoring Hiccup and Fishlegs.

At the same time their dragons awakened to their screams.

Toothless immediately get hold of the situation and with one perfectly aimed shot (as usual; Night Furies never miss) he made clear work of the Whispering Death. Unfortunately, the blast was enough to throw Tuffnut back first against Astrid, who had just managed to get hold of her axe. Both fell on their backs to the ground.

Fireworm blinked her eyes and tried to figure out what caused the annoying interruption to her dreams, but was unable to achieve that until another Whispering Death landed on her back and tried to eat Snotlout. Such on act caused a furious reaction in Fireworm, who threw the Death off her back and set herself on fire.

Now that was enough to wake up Snotlout, who was badly confused about the situation. Only thing he really understood then was the fact that his shirt was on fire, and he made an amazingly fast sprint towards the sea, yelling in shock and pain.

Not surprising, a small skirmish wasn't enough to cause any kind of reaction in Horrorcow.

All this happened in a few seconds timeframe. In the next few seconds several Whispering Deaths joined the party.

Hiccup rolled sideways off Fishlegs and tried to get on his feet when something hit his back, throwing him back in the sand.

He tried to crawl away from the thing that had hit him, but was hit again so hard that he feared his spine had just broken. Pain was terrible, but he still tried to get away, crawling in the sand.

Then something scaly grabbed his feet and locked them together. Hiccup looked behind and saw that a legless dragon had tied his feet with its long tail. He tried to kick his legs free but the Whispering Death just tightened its grip and continued its capturing operation.

No one seemed to notice the situation Hiccup was in. They had all their own problems to worry about: Toothless was engaged by two Whispering Deaths, Astrid and Tuffnut were fighting third one, Snotlout was still in the water, Fireworm was struggling with fourth Death, and Fishlegs  
tried to get his shield from under Horrorcow, who was sleeping on it. Ruffnut and Sparky hadn't returned yet, and then there was the fiery fight between one more Whispering Death and Daggermouth.

It has to be said that Whispering Deaths were truly unique looking dragons. Basically they were _very_ long snakes with fancy heads and a pair of wings. They were agile on ground but bad flyers, and couldn't fly for too long without needing to rest, thus being unable to leave the island. Of  
course, they were also highly venomous.

Hiccup had hoped to see a Whispering Death, but not in this way. The dragon wrapped its serpent body around Hiccup so tightly he could hardly breathe. He couldn't move his legs or hands, he couldn't even shout for help, as his voice refused to work. All he could do was watch. Watch in  
horror how the dragon's head arced above his. Watch how it opened its mouth, revealing all those rows of sharp, deadly, venomous teeth.

Hiccup closed his eyes. There was nothing to be done.

_This is the end_.

Then there was only blood, all over him.

Which is quite understandable, since there tends to be lots of blood when someone crushes other's head between his jaws. And that was exactly what Toothless had done to the Whispering Death.

For his great amazement, Hiccup felt the dragon to loosen its grip at the moment of its final strike. And then there was all the blood on his face and upper body. Where did it come from?

Hiccup opened his eyes and saw a rather nasty sight: Toothless' head was just above his, and the Night Fury was spitting out parts of the Whispering Death's skull and other rather gross-looking parts of bloody matter.

"H-huh. Y-you…" He slowly managed to understand what had just happened. "Th-thanks, bud." Then he fainted.

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**Present time:  
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Hiccup blinked his eyes. He couldn't believe he had really fallen asleep in such a moment. He crawled out of his bed made out of a Night Fury. Now when he was outside of the Toothless-tent he could clearly hear wind blowing outside. And it was still as dark and snowy as earlier.

Toothless woke up immediately when he felt Hiccup touching his wing. The dragon turned his green eyes to his human. The boy was standing right in front of his muzzle.

"We should continue our journey, bud."

Toothless whined. He had flown for the whole day and later in a storm which had been very exhausting. All he wanted to do was sleep. Besides, the boy looked like he was still shivering in cold. But he also knew Hiccup wouldn't let him have his mind this time. That didn't mean he couldn't just go back sleeping and the Viking teen could not do anything about it. But then the boy would probably go without him, and Toothless wasn't going to let him go alone in the dark tunnel.

Toothless yawned before reluctantly standing up. He then stretched his wings and folded them back.

"Ready now, are we?" Hiccup asked with a heartwarming smile on his face. Toothless couldn't resist giving one of his toothless smiles back to the boy. He didn't feel so tired anymore.

Hiccup patted the dragon on the shoulder, and then the boy and the dragon walked, side by side, into the dark depths of the tunnel.

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**Ok now go and review ppl, thx.**


	3. Darkness

**A/N: Third chapter is up! I have amazed myself at the pace I have written these. This is rather short but now the backstory is fully established, or almost at least.**

**Thanks for the review Spyden, you have good point there. Hiccup and Toothless are alone in the present time, the middle parts of previous chapters were flashbacks, I have made that more clear now.**

**DISCLAIMER: Quite surprisingly, I still do not own How to Train Your Dragon or it's characters.**

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**Chapter 3: Darkness**

The tunnel was so dark that Hiccup could hardly see anything aside from some very dark-grayish shapes that were rocks – probably. It was very hard for him to walk there without stumbling and tripping on the uneven ground. It took good five minutes before Toothless had enough of Hiccup's "I can walk on my own"-show and so he turned in front of the boy, blocking his way.

"Oh come on Toothless, what is it now?" Hiccup sighed in frustration.

Toothless crouched and made soft, hinting growl. Of course Hiccup couldn't see that he was crouched but that's why the Night Fury nudged the boy towards his back with his head. The Viking stumbled and fell on the dragon's back.

One thing Toothless couldn't understand was why his human had to try so hard to not show any kind of weakness, especially regarding his fake leg. He somewhat understood that Hiccup did not want to show to the villagers that he was having trouble with his leg, but why he had to do that when there was no one else around, like now? It was not like the boy had any chance to hide the fact that his leg was hurting from Toothless. Hiccup was his human and it was Toothless' responsibility to know everything that Hiccup had going on.

"Alright, if you insist, bud", Hiccup said and positioned himself correctly in the saddle. Toothless purred to him and then continued the journey down the tunnel. For him it was now problem to move in dark, as he was a Night Fury and as such he had the ability to see even the faintest traits of light.

For a few minutes they travelled in silence (and they moved a lot faster now when Toothless was carrying Hiccup, may I add), then Hiccup started talking: "We have only one hour Toothless, or two at best." Toothless was quiet, waiting the boy to continue.

"If we don't make it in time…" There was a moment of silence. "If we don't make it then they all; Ruffnut, Fishlegs, Daggermouth… they will die." Hiccup sounded like he was sobbing, but Toothless couldn't be sure as he couldn't see the boy on his back. Maybe it was just the quietness of the tunnel that was playing tricks on his ears.

"It's all my fault, Toothless." The dragon hissed in protest, but the teen ignored it. "I shouldn't have taken this task. What made me think we could do it and remain unharmed, when even groups of several good warriors could not make it without losing few members? I was a fool…" Hiccup fell silent.

_No, don't fall into self-pity now, we have still enough time_. Toothless really wanted to cheer him up, but it was hard to do when he couldn't talk nor touch the boy when he was on his back.

_Let's take your mind off it then; hold on,_ Toothless grinned to himself. Then he started to bounce around the tunnel.

"No! Stop! What are you doing, I might hit my head on something!" Hiccup sure sounded frightened. No matter, there was no way Toothless was letting his rider's head hit something. Besides, his plan was working: Hiccup was recovering from the misery he had deliberately put himself  
into. So no, Toothless wasn't stopping. Instead, he zoomed ahead so fast he could, occasionally leaping on the wall and then bouncing back down, so fast he could.

Hiccup screamed for a while but eventually calmed down. Toothless slowed down into brisk walk.

There were no other sounds than their breathing and the dragon's claws hitting against the ground for a while.

Hiccup broke the silence: "Thanks buddy, I needed that."

_You're welcome, little one, _Toothless thought, relieved by the fact that his strategy had worked.

It didn't take long before there was a faint light shimmering ahead. Soon Hiccup began to see shapes again, then smaller stones and finally every crack there was in the walls. And then, they had reached their destination.

Hiccup's eyes widened in front of the sight: "Amazing! This looks so… so beautiful!" The cave had led into a huge underground opening, with light coming in from the cracks in the ceiling. The whole room was large enough for Toothless to fly without any problems, most of the walls and floor was covered in crystal-clear ice and there were glacial stalagmites and –stalactites.

Toothless sniffed. He didn't like the scent there was. It wasn't the stuffy smell of the cave, nor was it coming from the small plants that were growing on the cave floor in the ice-free areas. No, it was something else and Toothless didn't like it.

Hiccup was just looking around in awe. The boy had apparently forgotten that they were on a rather important mission with no time to waste. Toothless gently shook his shoulders to get the attention of his human, and then pointed towards the stunted plants that the Vikings called Gloomweeds.

It took a moment for the teen to gather his thoughts before he was able to understand the dragon's meaning. "Oh, yes, I'm on it bud", he said and jumped down from the saddle.

The ground was covered in rather thick but clear layer of ice in most parts, and Toothless had to escort Hiccup to the herbs to prevent him from slipping with his metallic foot.

Hiccup removed his backpack when they reached the unfrozen spot of ground where the herbs were growing. He crouched next to the plants and picked one up.

Toothless huffed. All he knew about those pieces of sheep food was that they could be used to cure poisoning caused by a dragon. Any kind of dragon. That was possible because all dragons used the same kind of poison; some just had stronger mixes than others. No wonder they were so valuable to the Vikings that it was worth of it to sacrifice few men to get more of the herbs, as dragon poisonings were part of everyday life.

Hiccup put the Gloomweed in his backpack and began to pick up more herbs. Meanwhile, Toothless wandered around the large opening. His ears were sleek against his neck and his pupils were narrowed. The scent was getting stronger. The source was near, but where? He sneaked around the stalactites, looking for the source of the threatening smell. All he did find was a frozen, half eaten carcass of an unordinary large Whispering Death, and some small, needle-like teeth stuck in the dead dragon. Oh, and more of the snake-dragon bones were scattered around the floor, all in deep freeze.

This wasn't reassuring find at all. What kind of thing eats Whispering Deaths, extremely deadly dragons, on regular basis?

Then there was a loud roar somewhere behind him, near the entrance to the tunnel where they had came in. The sound shook the very cores of the Night Fury's bones.

_Hiccup! _Why_ am I here and not with him!_

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Hope you enjoyed, exit goes via that review button right there, right?


	4. Ruthless Frostbite

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A/N: Got the fourth one done! Next one will be trickier to write so it might take some days for next update...  
Before that, I hope you enjoy this chapter. There won't be any fancy flashback anymore and the story is now going on full :D

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own HTTYD or it's characters, but the Frostbite is all mine.

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Chapter 4: Ruthless Frostbite

Hiccup watched as Toothless wandered off his sight of view, disappearing somewhere between the icy stalactites.

_I wonder what he is looking for,_ Hiccup shrugged. _Probably he is just enjoying the view._

Hiccup hadn't noticed how nervous his dragon was. No, he just kept picking up the herbs. His backpack was getting full. It was quiet for a while and Hiccup was focused in his job, so he startled badly when he looked up and noticed that he was staring at a plate-sized, cyan colored eye with narrowed pupil.

The dragon to which the eye belonged shook its head when the boy suddenly jumped backwards. It growled threateningly.

The creature was the most terrifying and magnificent dragon that the teen had ever seen. It was rather large; at least twice the length of a Monstrous Nightmare, and three times taller than one. Its body build was quite like Deadly Nadder's. It had only two legs, which were apparently very strong, and had vicious-looking claws. Its tail was long, about five meters, and there was a row of razor-sharp spikes on the both sides of the tail, covering two thirds of it. The dragon's wings were probably rather small but it was hard to tell as they were folded. Its scales were like  
glittering crystal and its coloring was mainly sky blue - white with some faint, cyan tiger stripes.

However, the thing that really made the dragon to look respectable was its head. It was long like Monstrous Nightmare's, but a lot more massive; it must had great jaw strength. And then there was a huge amount of icy needles in its mouth that were its teeth. Above the jaws were two, deep cyan-colored eyes, which looked down at Hiccup with cold stare. The dragon sniffed and bared its teeth, making a low snarl. It took a step towards the boy.

The distance between Hiccup and the large dragon was only few meters. It was far to near for Hiccup to feel comfortable, but he nevertheless forced himself to calm down.

"It's alright, I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm sorry if I invaded your territory, but I had to get some of these plants." Hiccup gestured towards the Gloomweeds that were growing in front of him. He kept his both hands raised up, palms towards the large dragon, and slowly get on his feet.

"It's okay, it's okay", Hiccup repeated.

The icy-looking dragon tilted its head to have better look at Hiccup with its left eye. Its expression was rather surprised and confused. For some seconds the dragon just stared at him. Then it opened its well-armed jaws and breathed out a cloud of mist.

_Huh, is it really that cold here?_

Hiccup stretched his right hand towards the dragon. It was looking at him intensively, like it was waiting for something to happen. He took a step towards the dragon, and his hand went into the mist cloud that was hovering between the boy and the ice-blue creature. It was pretty bad mistake.

Hiccup screamed in the combination of surprise, horror, shock and pain, and immediately pulled his hand back. It was covered in ice. He couldn't move his fingers. The mist breathed out by the large beast had turned into ice at contact and frozen his hand. He took some steps backwards while looking his hand in disbelief. Then his metallic leg slipped on the ice and he fell on his back.

The dragon stepped forward and let out a mighty roar, which echoed from the walls everywhere.

Hiccup tried to get up immediately but hit his head on something. There was something black and large above him. That black, large, scaly, hissing something was nothing else than Toothless, standing over him protectively.

Hiccup examined his hand while lying on the cold cave floor, under Toothless. His hand wasn't frozen, but it was covered in centimeter-thick ice layer. And now, his hand was freezing and it didn't feel too good.

_So the dragon's breath will freeze… I think I know what that thing is, it was only few days ago when Fishlegs mentioned something…, now if I'd just remember… oh yes:_

_**Ruthless Frostbite**__: This dragon inhabits places with such a low temperature that other dragon species couldn't live there. Very rare, possibly extinct. Legends tell it hunts by encasing its victims in ice. Extremely dangerous, hide and pray it doesn't find you._

_Why_ _I have this habit of running into all these extreme rarities that want to kill me?_

First time, he had managed to befriend the dragon in question, which was really extraordinary considering his luck. Second time, he lost his foot. He didn't want to think what could happen this time.

The Frostbite was surprised of the Night Fury's appearing and backed off few meters. Toothless snapped his teeth furiously and spreaded his wings in order to appear as scary as possible and make the other dragon flee.

Unfortunately, the Frostbite wasn't tricked so easily and soon it let out a ferocious roar and charged towards Toothless. Toothless couldn't take the risk of accidentally crushing his rider and thus was forced to leave the boy exposed and attack first. Using his wings as help he jumped over the ice-dragon, turned around in mid-air and shot a shocking blue blast of fire at its back.

It groaned in pain when the blast exploded against its scales with such a force that the dragon fell on its right side. Right in front of its nose was Hiccup, who was still lying on ground, trying to free his hand from its freezing glove. He narrowly avoided the Ruthless Frostbite's jaws by rolling to right. Before it had time for another try there was Toothless all over it, biting and slashing with his claws.

Hiccup backed off as shrieks and roars and other loud noises echoed from the cave's walls. The Ruthless Frostbite tried to shake Toothless off its back, but the Night Fury had solid hold from its neck – with his teeth – and wasn't going to let it go anytime soon. There was plenty of blood dripping from its neck. It dashed its tail around furiously and flapped its wings, but that was not enough to make Toothless loosen his grip.

"Toothless", Hiccup yelled. "Try to hold on, I'll grab my pack and then let's get out of here!"

Toothless couldn't answer with his mouth full of dragon neck, nor was he able to nod his head, so he simply blinked his eye and bit harder, causing more blood to burst out. The Frostbite's neck was too thick for Toothless to cause any severe damage, though.

The situation seemed to be partly under control, but Hiccup was still extremely worried. Not least because this was the largest he had seen since Red Death (not anywhere near its size, though) and in addition it could freeze its victims!

He turned his attention to his backpack that was lying on ground behind him. There was still plenty of space to be filled with Gloomweeds, but there was no time for that. Those that he had should do now. He crawled to the pack as walking on slippery surface with metallic leg was rather difficult. After reaching the pack he quickly grabbed his dagger from there and then secured the pack.

The job would have been easier if he'd been able to use both hands, but at the moment his right hand was pretty much useless, but he couldn't help it before Toothless has time to make a fire.

As soon as the pack was securely closed he swung it to his back. At the same time he heard a nasty thud somewhere behind him, followed by Toothless' shriek.

The white-cyan dragon had pounded against the wall back first. This had been rather painful experience for Toothless and he had to let the Frostbite go. Now the Night Fury had lost his only advantage in ground-based fight, there wouldn't be another opportunity to attack from behind, the large dragon would certainly take care of that.

The Frostbite whipped its spiky tail towards Toothless and he was too slow to move out of the way. Pain erupted in his left hind leg. The Frostbite made some barking noises, almost like it was laughing at him. Laugh was followed by cloud of ice-mist aimed towards him. This time he was faster. He jumped to his right and then beat his wings few times to get forward. He landed between the Ruthless Frostbite and Hiccup. This was the position he was supposed to be in, protecting his human.

Hiccup watched as Toothless avoided Frostbite's ice breath and then landed in front of him. He saw few deep, bleeding cuts on the Night Fury's left hind leg. The dragon was shaking slightly and breathing heavily. Some blood was dropping on the ground. Hiccup felt really angry all of sudden. He couldn't stand seeing his best friend getting in such a condition because of him.

"Toothless." He took few steps towards his dragon, but he was growling at the Ruthless Frostbite and didn't pay attention to anything else. The Frostbite, on other note, was closing on them at the same pace as Toothless was backing towards Hiccup.

"Toothless, listen", Hiccup said, touching the black scales above the wounds. Although the ice had melted from his hand, it was still numb. The Night Fury eyed him at the corner of his eye, groaning faintly. "You are injured, we should hurry and leave. Exit is some twenty meters behind us, let me hop on your back and then say goodbyes to that thing. It is too big to follow us there." Toothless snarled and turned away from the other dragon.

The plan was good as the Frostbite couldn't have caught them before they'd have disappeared in the tunnel. Only problem was the even larger Ruthless Frostbite that was completely blocking the tunnel from them. It was a bit different from the other icy dragon in coloring also aside from being slightly bigger; it didn't have stripes and it was overall more white than blue-ish. It probably was a female.

"No…" Hiccup whispered. He was so shocked that he almost forgot to breathe. _This so isn't happening._

The fact was that they were trapped between two large, bloodthirsty dragons. Behind them the male Frostbite was staring at them hungrily. It had stopped from advancing towards them, in about the same distance that there was between Hiccup and Toothless and the female Frostbite. The female had an expression on its face that was telling them that they'd die soon.

Hiccup tried to get better hold of his dagger. His hands were sweating. He changed looks with Toothless. Even the dragon looked worried, which had to mean the situation was really dire. What chances did a skinny teenage Viking and injured Night Fury really had against two ice-breathing, shack-sized monsters after all?

"Odin help us", Hiccup muttered.

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**Now please review ppl, I need to know what you think of the story!**


	5. Miracle

**A/N: 5th chapter already! There's lot's of action coming, hope my descriptions are not confusing in any part. Enjoy :)**

Disclaimer: HTTYD still isn't mine, oh well...

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Chapter 5: Miracle

_We _can't _die now. This is not only about us, but others will die as well if we don't make it back with the Gloomweeds!_

Toothless let out one very low growl. The Night Fury was looking so menacing that Hiccup was almost happy to face two huge dragons instead of angered Night Fury.

The Frostbites began to slowly walk in circle around them, eyes fixed to their targets. They opened their mouths and breathed out huge amounts of their deadly mist – straight in front of their noses.

They proceeded to walk in the clouds, wings foiled tightly against their sides. The Frostbites continued to breathe mist in front of them while walking around Hiccup and Toothless. The dragons were shaking and stretching every bit of their body while doing so. Soon they were done.

Hiccup gasped at the sight: now the Frostbites were literally ice-dragons. Thanks to their stretching and special scales, they weren't encased like their victims would have, but they wore now a fully flexible armor of ice instead. Every single scale was reinforced with frosty, glittering armor. And gods they looked terrifying, but also incredibly beautiful at the same time.

"Alright bud", Hiccup tried to clear his throat. He was still holding his dagger in his left hand. It had barely any use now but it still felt good to have some sort of weapon.

"You should focus on the male; it's already injured. Use your fire to blast trough its armor. I'll distract the female."

Toothless groaned and tried to curl his tail around Hiccup.

"I know it's dangerous but we have no other chances, you can't take on two at the same time."

Toothless moaned and let his head fall downwards in defeat. The dragon knew that his human was right. The he jerked his head back up, eyes narrowed and fixed to the male Frostbite that was still circling them.

"Okay, as soon as you got it… immobilized, come to grab me and then we're off." Hiccup scratched Toothless behind his ear. Toothless purred and gave a final glance to the boy before launching himself in air, towards the unusual dragon.

The ballistic noise of a Night Fury filled the air before shockingly blue flash blasted against the face of the smaller Ruthless Frostbite.

Having such a bright flash against your face isn't very healthy and thus the Frostbite became blind for a few seconds. It roared in anger, and Toothless immediately exploited the opportunity and shot another blast straight in its mouth. Brilliant blue flames burst out from between its teeth, taking a few with them.

Better yet, Frostbites were not fire breathing dragons. Their mouth was _not_ fireproof. There was smoke coming from its mouth as it shook its head violently and groaned loudly.

Toothless leapt in the air again, ignoring the protests his leg was making, and released one more blast towards the now ice-covered wound in the Frostbites neck. A cloud of steam exploded in the air when the flames touched the dragon's armor.

The force of the explosion was so strong that the Frostbite was knocked down straight on its face. At the same time Toothless landed on its back, intending to claw the already badly wounded neck into shreds. Too bad he didn't take in account that the back of the dragon was still frozen and he slipped right to the other end of the large dragon.

Although the male Frostbite was hurt badly, it was confused and in pain, it still realized that something was at the reach of its tail. So, it did the most natural thing and slashed its tail down to the thing that has just slid down its back. It sneered in joy to the feeling of its tail-spikes sinking into flesh and breaking bones. The high-pitched shriek of pain that followed made it feel even better.

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Hiccup turned to face the other dragon when Toothless took off. He hesitated for a moment. This was crazy; he couldn't even run properly with his prosthesis, and still he was going to drag attention of a huge dragon to himself. Like he had any other options. Well he might be able to sneak out if that female dragon would go after Toothless, but then his friend would die for sure… Hiccup didn't even want to think about that option.

_Focus, Hiccup!_ He commanded himself.

The female Frostbite made irritated snarl when Toothless was attacking its mate. He had to do something now or the dragon would charge the Night Fury.

Hiccup grabbed a stone from the ground while hurrying towards the center of the cave; towards the glacial stalactites. When he was middle-way to the cover he turned around and threw the stone with all his strength towards the dragon that was just about to charge Toothless. He  
almost hit the dragon to the eye.

The Frostbite yelped and stopped right in its tracks. It blinked its eye many times and then slowly turned to face Hiccup. It bared its teeth and growled deeply. There was only fifteen meters between the ice-dragon and Hiccup, and some ten meters between Hiccup and the nearest stalactite.

_Uh oh, I'm totally idiot,_ Hiccup thought before zooming towards the minor cover that the frozen pillar could provide. The Frostbite darted right after him.

_Only five more meters… four… _Heavy footsteps were closing in on him faster than he had hoped. _Oh come on, just two more…!_

Hiccup took one last giant leap, grabbed the slippery rock formation and swung himself behind it. Just in right time, as he felt the back of his leather riding vest go stiff and cold. It was frozen.

Some loud groans echoed somewhere over distance, but Hiccup ignored it and continued his half-running in different direction, this time heading towards large, frozen boulder. Behind him the female Frostbite crushed the stalactite with its tail, sending pieces of rock to fly in every direction. It let out an angered cry and charged again after the Viking boy.

Hiccup sneaked behind the boulder and looked for a suitable place to go for next. A heartbreaking shriek distracted his thoughts. _Toothless, oh no!_

Without hesitation he turned around and darted straight around the boulder, back to the direction of Toothless. He almost collided with the Frostbites leg, which was just going to jump on the large rock. Agilely he avoided the leg and ran straight under the large dragon.

It was lucky for Hiccup that the Frostbite was surprised of him suddenly appearing from behind the boulder and running straight under it, so it couldn't react in time. Instead, it tripped to its own legs and made a rather harsh impact with the rock.

Hiccup didn't even bother to look behind; only thing in his mind was getting to Toothless. There was just one final stalactite blocking the view. Screeches and slashing and hissing were coming from the other side. When he had almost reached the stalactite and was about to swing around it, the whole thing just exploded to his face. Not literally to his face of course, but one sharp splinter of rock did actually pierce his right shoulder. Hiccup screamed as he stumbled to the middle of the loose rocks. He lost his grip of the dagger and it got lost between the rock chunks.

_Oh gods that hurts!_

He got some dust to his eye in the process and when he was able to see well again (took some good five seconds), he noticed that he was eye-to-eye with the object that had broken the stalactite: the male Ruthless Frostbite. It immediately pinned him down under its claw, pretty much in similar manner that Fireworm had done to him a good while ago at the kill ring.

Only difference was that this time Toothless wouldn't be able to save him. Why not? Well the reason was the female Frostbite that just charged past them, towards the Night Fury, who was about to release a blast at the male ice-dragon.

A blue flash lighted up the whole cave for a brief moment. Then the female Frostbite shook its somewhat steaming head and snarled in rage before leaping towards Toothless.

_I can't die now! I just can't now… whenever later but not now please, I _must_ save my friends! They _TRUST_ in me! Please…._

His shoulder was sore from pain and the shard was still stuck in it, he was lying on very uneven ground and some very large claws were pinning him down. His shirt was getting soaked from his blood and it felt very uncomfortable, not to mention he was feeling weaker every moment.

But it didn't matter anymore. He, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, the great Dragon Master and slayer of the Red Death would die here, in this god forsaken cave, by eaten alive. Oh well, it could be worse…

Toothless growled desperately somewhere, but the other Frostbite made sure that he couldn't interfere. Hiccup felt his eyes getting wet when he thought how his death would hurt his dragon infinitely more than it would hurt him.

_Please… Not now… not now…_

The male Frostbite had almost a grin on its face when it prepared to kill its victim. Then a miracle happened. First it was just a whooooooooosssh-like sound. Second later the sound materialized into a flaming demon that descended on the Frostbites back and furiously mauled it with all of her strength.

Her, yes. The flaming demon was Fireworm.

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**Good, and now could you... oh you know what I'm gonna say.**


	6. Escape

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**A/N: Time for update, this time a bit shorter one, but with a lot of going on.  
Thanks for the review SeasonSinger, I appreciate it :)**

DISCLAIMER: Nope, HTTYD isn't mine.

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Chapter 6: Escape

Blood were dribbling everywhere when the Ruthless Frostbite rolled on its back trying to get the flaming Monstrous Nightmare off. Ferocious screeches and groans of pain and anger filled the air.

Hiccup slightly tilted his head to see the battling dragons better. He couldn't believe that it really was Fireworm.

The Nightmare jumped off the torn back of the Frostbite and landed in front of it. She wasn't burning anymore but her flames had done their job: most of the icy armor had melted away and some brilliant cyan scales were scorched black. Puddles of water and blood were forming on the ground.

_If Fireworm is here, does that mean that…?_

His thought was interrupted when a figure appeared above him. A figure of muscular, dark-haired Viking teen. Snotlout.

"Hiccup, always in trouble, eh?" He teased him and offered his hand to Hiccup who was lying on the ground. "Where do you dig out all these beasts?"

Hiccup stretched his left hand upwards and Snotlout grabbed it and pulled him up. Hiccup tried to smile but the whole situation felt still somewhat unrealistic. And his right shoulder was hurting like mad.

"Didn't I tell you to stay protecting the others in case of new attack by Whispering Deaths?" That was not what Hiccup was intended to say but it just came out.

Snotlout shrugged his shoulders and smirked. "You'd be dead now if I hadn't come." Before Hiccup had time to open his mouth Snotlout added: "Astrid and Tuffnut will defend them with Sparky and Horrorcow, don't you think that's enough?"

"Uh well… I guess it is." There was a moment of silence. Well, not exactly silence since there was two pairs of fighting dragons but you know the meaning. "Thanks, Snot."

"Nah it's nothing. Did you get the herbs? And by the way you have something stuck in your shoulder." Snotlout was examining Hiccup's wound with his gaze.

"Oh it's nothing, just a small splinter of rock, no need to worry", Hiccup tried to cover up but his painful appearance was giving it away.

"Let me pull it out", Snotlout demanded.

"Thanks but I'm really ok."

Snotlout didn't even listen that; he took a solid grip of Hiccup's arm and then quickly pulled the shard out. Some blood bursted to ground.

"Ouch! Did you have to do that?" Hiccup moaned and pressed the wound with his left hand. Snotlout didn't even bother to answer.

Their nice conversation in a battlefield was interrupted when Fireworm almost crashed on them. She snarled and got back on her feet just in time to take on the attacking Frostbite. She slashed once with her sharp claws and some bleeding cuts appeared to the male dragon's chin.

At the same time Toothless darted from under the large ice-dragon with the female one following him, causing the Frostbites to collide with each other.

The result was two large dragons struggling to get back on their feet, which was pretty hard for them when their wings were covered in the protective ice armor.

Fireworm saw her chance then and with one leap she was in front of the roaring male Frostbite. She took a deep breath and then released all of the destructive power of her flames, straight down the throat of the ice-dragon. Its eyes widened into rounds in pain as its insides were burning to ashes.

Fireworm took a few steps backwards and maintained a vigilant pose while watching the smaller of the Frostbites wriggling around painfully. Then its movements slowed down and finally it was just lying still. There were no signs of breathing, and its cold eyes were staring into nothingness. The male Ruthless Frostbite was dead.

The Viking and their dragons stood next to each other and stared at the defeated dragon. Hiccup was somewhat shocked that the great enemy had really fallen.

The other Frostbite finally got back on its feet. Like the others in the cave, it stared at the body, and it wailed. It dangled its head and walked to its dead mate. Then it affectionately nuzzled the dead one's nose with its own. The scene was almost magical in some sense and Hiccup couldn't help but stare.

Suddenly it jerked its head up, whipped its tail and let out a roar with indescribable amount of rage and hate in it.

"Take the herbs and go Hiccup! Take Fireworm; I'll hold it back with Toothless!" Snotlout yelled. Hiccup hadn't seen such a serious, determined look on his cousin's face since… actually, he had never seen Snotlout to be so serious like he was right now.

"But you should really go with Fireworm; she's your dragon after all"

"Now you listen: Toothless is injured and can't run or fly, but he can fight. You are also wounded, but even if you wouldn't be it wouldn't change the fact that you can't fight. So you go with Fireworm as she can run, and we'll prevent that beast from following you."

Hiccup hesitated for a moment. He didn't know Snotlout was able to reason like that. He really didn't like to leave Toothless behind, but the Gloomweeds had to be delivered to their friends immediately.

_Gods don't let me regret this._

"Alright", Hiccup walked next to the Monstrous Nightmare and then climbed to the saddle. The dragon huffed and turned to look at her human. Snotlout grinned to his Nightmare and patted her to the cheek.

"Take Hiccup back to the camp as fast as you can, I count on you bud." Fireworm smirked back and then turned around to leave the large cave.

Hiccup looked at the wonderful green orbs of his buddy one last time. "Take care of Snotlout, buddy, we'll be back soon", his voice was shaking slightly. Toothless purred and nodded with a smile on his face.

The last thing he saw before Fireworm entered the darkness of the tunnel was the Frostbite charging towards the escaping couple, mad in its fury. Then it was only blackness for Hiccup.

Still, the sounds of battle echoed in the tunnel for long time, and one of the last sounds he heard from the cave was a scream of great pain that was far too high-pitched to be produced by the Ruthless Frostbite.

"Please hurry Fireworm…" Hiccup whispered. His shirt was uncomfortably wet, and now it was not only because of all the blood and snow.

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**Hope you enjoyed, let's see how this turns out after this :D Oh, and review ppl, I have three times more chapters than reviews!**


	7. Worries

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**A/N: Sorry for taking this long for such a short chapter, this was hard one to write; I wasn't sure where I wanted the chapter to go and dialogue is not easy to write for me. To compensate a bit, I might update again today! :D**

**Thanks for all the reviewers, you really help to motivate me to keep going!**

DISCLAIMER: No, it's not mine.

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Chapter 7: Worries

It was snowing heavily. Hiccup didn't care. He was focusing to maintain a hold of Fireworm's horns when she zoomed trough the deep-white forest. No thoughts, no anything. He tried to avoid thinking; it would do nothing good to him.

Snow was blurring his vision, but it didn't matter. He didn't really look at anything, either. Hiccup hoped that he could just close his eyes and forget this. Yes, he really was sleeping in his bed at Berk and this was just a dream. Just a bad dream, a nightmare, yes. However the pain in his right shoulder told otherwise.

Hiccup sighed in deep. He observed Fireworm's expressions for a moment. The Nightmare had a determined look in her yellow eyes while she made her way through the thick snow covering the scene. They had to go on foot as Monstrous Nightmare had no hope in flying in a blizzard. Fireworm was probably as worried as he was. Ruthless Frostbite was a terrific opponent; anything could happen to Toothless and Snotlout…

_Toothless had a broken wing, what if he won't be able to fly anymore? What if he got hit by the ice-breath as his leg is wounded and he isn't so swift anymore? What if he tries to protect Snotlout and takes a hit from the Frostbites tail-spikes? What if the enraged dragon really kills Toothless…? Oh no, I'm doing this again!_

Hiccup shook his head to clear his thoughts, or they would drive him crazy. He had to focus; they weren't far from the beach now. With the Gloomweeds he could heal his friends and then return to help Toothless and Snotlout. That is, if they won't return to the beach first. Fighting the dragon shouldn't take too long in any case, so they should be back in no time. Unless Toothless has troubles in walking now when he's wounded, in that case they should make a camp in the cave… or unless something worse have happened…

_I'm going there again!_ Hiccup had to remind himself. This was really hard for him.

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Ten minutes later:

The beach opened in front of the boy and the dragon. Now it was more snowy than sandy but it was the same place nonetheless. There were the logs they had sit on, there were the bodies of several Whispering Deaths, there was the now put-out campfire. But most importantly, their friends were _not_ there.

"Aww come on, where have they gone?"

Fireworm huffed and looked around, sniffing the air.

"Can you track them down?" Hiccup asked voice shaking slightly. He was getting cold again.

The Nightmare nodded slowly and proceeded to walk towards the forest. She constantly sniffed and had a focused look on her face.

Hiccup tried to relax; he could do nothing but wait now.

It was not long until he saw orange-ish light from between the snowy spruces. Campfire.

_Finally_, thought Hiccup.

They made their way through the trees (Hiccup getting a nice amount of snow on him) separating them from the fire and saw a whole fallen tree burning there, in the middle of forest. There was no snow on ground anywhere near the tree. Next to the tree trunk were three dragons, two  
of them were curled around humans and third, sturdy one was on watching duty.

Horrorcow made a happy, relieved bark when she saw Hiccup and Fireworm appearing from the forest.

The bark was followed by two heads popping up from under dragon's wing; the other head belonged to Astrid, who had been sleeping under Daggermouth's wing and the other belonged to Tuffnut, who looked from under Sparky's wing. Both had somewhat sleepy and worried  
expression but they smiled when they recognized Hiccup and Fireworm.

"Hey man you did it!" Tuffnut grinned and tried to crawl out from the Zippleback's protection.

"Hiccup! What happened, why are you with Fireworm? Where's Toothless and Snotlout?" Astrid questioned him immediately. She was looking concerned, to say the least.

Hiccup jumped down from the saddle. "I– it's a long story, how are Ruffnut, Fishlegs and Daggermouth doing?" He almost fell over when he tried to walk; luckily Astrid and Tuffnut were fast enough to catch him in time.

"Ruffnut is pretty bad, it's good you arrived now and not five minutes later", said Tuffnut.

Astrid was worried of Hiccup: "You should rest Hiccup; you're so tired that you can barely walk. We can take care of this now."

It was true; he was very, _very_ tired. After all, he hadn't had any rest since he had hopped on Toothless' saddle at the morning that was an eternity ago. Still, there were far too many things to do, too many things to worry about for him to allow himself some rest.

"No Astrid, I can't rest now. The herbs, I have to… and Toothweeds, I mean Toothless… must help…" He muttered something incomprehensible.

_Great, now my tongue is working against me, too._

Astrid ignored Hiccup's protests. Tuffnut took off Hiccup's backpack and then they half-carried him to Sparky and laid him down to lean against the Zippleback.

"Can't you hear what I'm saying?" Hiccup protested and tried to get up, only to be pushed back by Astrid.

"You _stay_ there and _get _some _rest_!" Astrid hissed. She was used to Hiccup's stubbornness and knew perfectly how to deal with him.

"But I really-"

"No! No excuses, just sit there!"

Hiccup shook his head and muttered something to himself, but didn't try to argue with Astrid anymore as it was obviously utterly useless. He sighed deep and tried to relax a bit.

Astrid looked at Hiccup for a moment and when she was sure the boy wouldn't try to get up again she turned to Tuffnut. "Okay, we have to make this quickly."

Tuffnut nodded and grabbed some Gloomweeds from the pack.

Hiccup watched as the two worked on the herbs; Tuffnut was grinding the leaves and Astrid took some vials full of foul-looking liquid from her backpack. His vision was slowly getting blurry as his eyelids felt like they were made of lead. He managed to fight the sleep for five minutes before falling into darkness.

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**That's it for now, now keep up with the reviews :)**


	8. Eye

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**A/N: Yeah, I managed to make it! Enjoy the second chapter of the day, I hope you like it ;)**

DISCLAIMER: Nope, HTTYD isn't mine. *sigh*

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Chapter 8: Eye

A frustrated screech startled Hiccup awake. He rubbed his eyes and tried to gather his mind from the dreams. After a minute or so he was aware enough to try and observe what was going on.

He was still leaning his back against Sparky? Check.

It was still snowing? Check, but in a more calm manner now.

It was still night? Check, but dawn wasn't far away, he could tell that.

_Dawn isn't far away… dawn… OH GOSH I have slept for HOURS!_

Hiccup jumped up, startling Astrid who was apparently arguing with Fireworm about something, not far away from him.

"Huh, Hiccup you scared me", she moaned with a grin on her face.

"What's going on?" Hiccup asked and limped towards the couple.

"Uh, well I think Fireworm wants to go to search for Snotlout, but I don't think she should go alone and others are still pretty weak for travel-" The Monstrous Nightmare interrupted her with a loud grumble, waking up Sparky. Or at least his other head, the other was still sleeping. The  
awaken head looked at Fireworm with a questioning expression.

"I can understand her perfectly", Hiccup declared and patted the Nightmare to shoulder. "Toothless and Snotlout haven't returned from the cave yet, we have to go to look for them, now!" His voice was filled with determination.

_Gods know what have happened…_

It was very rare that Hiccup was as determined about something as he was now, but when he was, Astrid just couldn't argue against him. "Okay, but Ruffnut and Fishlegs are really too weak to be moved anywhere yet."

"Alright, I'll go with Fireworm then." Hiccup looked at the Nightmare and she gestured him to jump on saddle, impatiently.

Astrid grabbed Hiccup from shirt before he managed to climb on the saddle. "Wait, Hiccup, you have to tell me what happened there, where is Toothless and Snotlout now? Besides, I'm coming with you."

"Uh, but Astrid, isn't Daggermouth still in weak condition? And anyways you can't leave Fishlegs and Ruffnut without protection, can you?"

"Don't worry, Daggermouth is dragon; the poisoning didn't affect him as fast as it does for humans, he'll be fine. What comes to others, there are still Tuffnut, Sparky and Horrorcow with them", Astrid said firmly and walked to Daggermouth. She gently waked up the Deadly Nadder.

"Let's get going then", Hiccup hurried her and finally climbed on the saddle. "I'll tell you everything on the way there."

Astrid jumped on her Nadder's saddle. She turned to look at the Hideous Zippleback that was watching at them with his other head. "Sparky, you're now in response of their safety; I know I can trust you."

Sparky nodded and then tried to wake up the other head.

Hiccup and Astrid didn't stay to follow if he managed to do that; they zoomed into the forest on the dragons' backs.

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Later:

  
The all-too-familiar cave opened in front of him. This time it was not as breathtaking sight as it had been earlier. There was dust floating around, loose rocks and gravel covered the floor here and there, and the beautiful ice-coverings had melted in several places. Puddles were formed on  
the ground, and some of them were deep crimson in color. Black scorch marks were also dotting the walls and ground. Most notable sight was, however, the large body of the dead Ruthless Frostbite. It was lying there, between the rubbles, eyes full of emptiness.

Hiccup turned his head away from the corpse; it was not a pleasant sight.

_Where are they? I'm sure they haven't left the cave…_

Hiccup climbed down from the saddle and turned to look at Astrid who was also walking with her own feet now.

"We should split up and search the whole area, in the case they are… somewhere between the stalactites and boulders." Hiccup said quietly. He felt panic rising up in his chest.

_Something really bad must have happened… no, I can't assume anything, they are all right, and Toothless is okay! They're just sleeping somewhere; they have to be tired after all…_ Hiccup tried to calm himself down.

"Alright, go you to the right side first, I'll take left side. Hopefully the dragons can smell them." Astrid noticed how nervous Hiccup was and tried to comfort him: "Hiccup, I'm sure Toothless is fine, he's just getting some rest somewhere."

Hiccup tried to smile but wasn't successful in that. He turned to Fireworm: "Let's look for Snotlout and Toothless; if you can smell them it's all good. Otherwise we'll circle here around, okay?"

Fireworm more than happily agreed, and Hiccup had hard time to follow the speeding Nightmare into the stalactite-maze.

There were scars of battle almost everywhere but no sign of the three creatures that had caused them. They were almost on the other end of the opening when Fireworm suddenly stopped for a brief moment and sniffed air in deep. Her eyes were narrowed and her pupils were slits,  
when she suddenly bolted away with amazing speed.

"Hey, Fireworm, wait! Did you smell them!" Hiccup tried to run after the Monstrous Nightmare, but he slipped and hit his head.

When he got back up there was no sign of Fireworm anywhere. But he noticed something that got his undivided attention: a black tail was sticking out from behind a large boulder. A black tail with two fins at the end; the other was also black but the other was bright red.

Hiccup felt his heart beat so fast that it almost hurt when he was closing the Night Fury. Soon he saw also an unfolded wing and some blood on the ground. Hiccup had to stop and close his eyes. For a moment he just concentrated in breathing deep.

_If Toothless is- if he is dead, I-…_ it was too painful to think that option. _Don't let him be dead, please don't let him be dead._

He opened his eyes and took some steps forward. Now he had almost walked around the boulder and he could tell that Toothless was lying in almost the same position that he had been when Hiccup had first found him in the forest at Berk; he was on his right side with left wing arcing high above him. The deep cut in the Night Fury's left hind leg was perfectly visible thanks to the stained blood. But it wasn't only spot where was blood; the dragon was overall covered in blood stains. Blood that most probably was his own.

Before Hiccup fell into despair he noticed that Toothless' chest was rising and lowering slightly.

_He breathes! He is ALIVE!_

Hiccup felt a great burden to fall off his heart. His friend was alive! Actually, not a friend, no, Toothless was not just a friend; he was the most important person in his life. Toothless meant everything to him. No one could replace him, not even Astrid, no matter how deeply he was in love with the girl. And yes, he did consider the dragon as a person.

Hiccup moved towards the head of the Night Fury. On his way there, he stopped few times to examine Toothless' wounds with his gaze. There were plenty of wounds; he had to note that for his sorrow. The brilliant black scales were scratched and stained. He felt a sting of guilty.

Finally Hiccup made his way to the front end of the dragon. His head was totally on its right side, so that his chin was towards Hiccup. Toothless was apparently unconscious.

Hiccup tried to wake the dragon up by patting him gently on the cheek. When it didn't work he tried scratching behind the ear. That made Toothless to twitch the ear and tilt his head a bit towards Hiccup.

"Toothless, Toothless do you hear me? You have to wake up!" Nothing happened for a moment. Then Toothless let out a faint wail and opened his eye. Hiccup saw great delight in the green sphere in front of him, but it was shadowed by pain. Toothless tried to grin but ended up groaning.

"Take it easy buddy; you're in a pretty bad shape."

Toothless straightened his head and laid it on his front paws. When he did so, Hiccup could see that there was a curving line of deep stabs on his head. The Frostbite had bitten Toothless on face. The line of tooth marks started from behind the dragon's right ear, curving on the top of his head and the ending at the right side of the nose. At the right side of the nose… actually, it went just over – oh gods!

"Toothless", Hiccup whispered as he sat down. He was trembling in fear. This couldn't be happening, not to Toothless. "Toothless, could you turn your head so I can see the other side?"

Toothless looked at Hiccup for a long time. Hiccup could see hesitance and sadness in his friend's eye. Slowly Toothless did as Hiccup asked.  
Hiccup felt that something got stuck in his throat. He shook his head in disbelief. He didn't want to believe in what he saw, but it was all too true. This was something he couldn't fix. Ever.

Hiccup let the tears pour out. He had caused this, and he could never forgive it to himself. "Toothless, I am - I am so sorry… so sorry", Hiccup sobbed and hugged the Night Fury.

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**Oh noes, what have I done! Time for you to tell how you like this :P**


	9. Wounded

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**A/N: Another chapter done! To prevent any confusion; this chaper tells what happens with Toothless and Snotlout when Hiccup & Fireworm leaves.  
Thanks for my reviewers; SeasonSinger I hope this clears things up :), also thanks to Darkdagers, it's good to hear you like it, hope you like this chapter too :D**

DISCLAIMER: Hey! How you guessed that I don't own HTTYD?

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Chapter 9: Wounded

After one final glance at Hiccup and Fireworm (but mostly at Hiccup), Toothless turned his attention to the Ruthless Frostbite that was charging after the fleeing dragon with a furious roar. Snotlout was far too weak to stop such a massive, running dragon so this was his job. Toothless let the gas to build up in his throat. He had gas for only two shots so there was no any to waste if they wanted to get out alive. Toothless retracted his teeth and shoot the blast out.

One bright blue flash later the Frostbite stumbled and almost fell to its right because of the power of the explosion. It shrieked as it collided with a stalactite, collapsing the rock formation in pieces. Toothless noted that its left wing was now free from the armor and with one leap (his wounded leg made a very strong protest against that) he dashed against the Frostbite's side. He sunk his teeth in the uncovered wing and bounced over the dragon's back. Result was that the already balance-lost dragon fell to the ground, rousing a massive cloud of dust in the air. Its wing was also twisted in odd position.

_Yeah! Don't mess with me_, Toothless thought and snarled at the Frostbite. _If my leg and wing wouldn't be halting me back you'd be dead by now!_

The Frostbite female rolled over its back, trying to get back on its feet when Snotlout pummeled it straight on its nose with his spiky mace. The dragon howled in pain and tried to snap the Viking between its jaws but was too slow for that. Instead, it got another hit from the mace, this time the hit landed against its teeth. Some needle-like teeth broke in pieces and few broke away as whole.

It was good that Snotlout wasn't as clumsy as he looked like as in that case he wouldn't have been able to dodge the Frostbite's second attempt of biting him.

When the large dragon was distracted Toothless had a chance to limp quickly next to it and then bounce on its head. Too bad he had underestimated the Frostbite's strength and when it swang its head up Toothless was sent flying pretty high in the air.

Now this wouldn't have been any problem to the Night Fury, unless he hadn't landed on his right wing. Yes, that's the broken one. It was good that Snotlout was some distance away as otherwise his ears would probably have deafened because of the scream that Toothless made. It just hurt so much that he hoped that the whole wing would be rather cut off than that he'd have to deal with this pain. It was like someone had just chopped trough his wing with a blunt axe, with the exception that every darn second it felt like the axe was cutting through his wing bones, instead of being just a one-time feeling. So Toothless did the only thing that a dragon can do in such of a situation: he screamed on the top of his lungs.

The pain consumed everything; it blurred his vision and messed up his thoughts. All Toothless wanted was to get rid of the pain. And taking in account what he saw at the corner of his eye, he'd be soon free of every feeling if he wouldn't move out of the way. Grinding his teeth, Toothless forced his legs to obey him. He turned his head to look at the attacking Frostbite, just to see that it was already launched towards him, claws first. As it was his only chance, Toothless was forced to use his last shot now. He released the blast against the ice-dragons face, effectively blinding it for a second. Just enough for him to move out of the reach of the deadly claws.

Toothless backed up few steps and tried to fold his right wing as the Frostbite was shaking its head and blinking eyes. He had no hope to fold his wing without dying in the pain first so he'd have to just drag it at his side and hope nothing would further harm it.

_I hope I won't lose my ability to fly, again, because of that cursed creature. Come on, is that the best you can do!_ Toothless growled in anger.

Now after using all his shots he had to rely purely on his claws and teeth. They were not necessarily enough to kill the beast of a dragon, but he didn't need to kill it after all. No, Toothless had made a few observations to figure that it would withdraw rather than risk of getting severely injured now when its mate was dead. Toothless hissed at the Frostbite and it growled back. For a moment the two dragons scowled at each other; as they were trying to kill with their glare. Toothless noticed that Snotlout was sneaking behind the Ruthless Frostbite.

_What is he trying to do?_ Toothless wondered.

Snotlout walked behind the Frostbite's left leg and gestured to Toothless: he pretended to swing his mace at the dragon's feet; then he quickly took a step forward and turned his head so that he was looking at his feet; and then he swiftly took a few more steps forward, turned his back to Toothless and leaped forward, clawing the air with his hand. When done, he looked at the Night Fury and blinked his eye.

_Hey that could work, looks like Hiccup was wrong, he is able to think creatively!_ Toothless blinked back to sign that he had understood. A rumbling roar signaled that the ice-dragon was about to charge again. _Do it, now!_ Almost like Snotlout had heard his thoughts, the teen pummeled the Frostbite's foot with his heavy weapon. It reacted almost instantly by twisting its body to get a look of the thing that had hurt it.

_Okay, my turn. Nice leg, please don't be mad at me for this_, Toothless thought to his wounded leg as he launched himself in air (just a leap, no wings used for obvious reason). He landed claws-first to the side of the massive skull, causing red liquid to pour out of the newly-inflicted wounds. Toothless proceeded to claw his way to the top of the Frostbite's head, and after making few more cuts he chose the injured wing as his next target and jumped for it. A flash of sharp, bloody talons, and there were some serious tears in its already-twisted wing.

Toothless landed gracefully on ground and instantly turned around to face the dragon again. But now, something had changed in its cold eyes. Sure, they were still full of wrath, but now there was also something else: worry and fear for something, and possibly even panic. The Ruthless Frostbite backed off. First, it took just few steps backwards and hissed, but when Toothless snapped his teeth and scratched the frozen ground, it began full retreat towards the rear end of the cave. It took a good twenty steps backwards before it dared to turn its back to the snarling Night Fury.

Everything was now alright for a brief moment, despite the fact that his leg was aching and sore, and his wing was even more so. Yeah, it was all right, before the flying mace hit the Frostbite almost in the eye. For his great terror, Toothless had to note that Snotlout was standing there, short distance behind the dragon, and shouting at it.

"Where do you think you are going?" Snotlout yelled. "So you're just a big coward after all!"

_What in Thor's name you think you are doing!_ Toothless hoped that his brains were misreading the information that his eyes and ears were collecting. Quite unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The Frostbite yelped first, but when it noticed that the attacker was just a Viking boy, it turned around agilely and charged, jaws wide open.

_Why on earth I promised to Hiccup to protect him_, Toothless moaned to himself but he was already on his way. One, two, three leaps and then he angled himself in the air to go right side first, and tackled the teen with his front paws. The idiot hadn't even moved one step during the two seconds that Toothless had needed to reach him. The unfortunate side in his chosen method of protection was that now the Frostbite's teeth had something else to sink in, instead of Snotlout.

That else was Toothless' head. With all the needles piercing his scales and skin, and the pressure that was effectively going to crush his skull, Toothless didn't pay attention to the fact that his vision faded away from the right side. He tried to struggle against the deadly grip but the Frostbite's jaws were too strong. The pressure just grew and grew until everything was diminishing; his skull was about to give up. Toothless wanted to think about Hiccup at his last moments, but there was no room for thinking in his current condition.

Then, without warning, the Frostbite whipped its head to the left and released Toothless. Actually, there was a nasty thud as a warning, but Toothless was too… occupied to hear that. Nevertheless, he staggered around and collided with a boulder, falling on his right side. Toothless closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was done now, he had no power left in his muscles and his whole body was aching and hurting and sore. However, it sounded like the Frostbite wasn't coming for him, no, apparently it was retreating again.

"I swear, I'm so angry right now! I won't let you go away for this!" Snotlout yelled. From the sound of his footsteps Toothless could tell that the teen was running after the dragon. Soon there was just silence. Toothless was now alone. Alone, bleeding and dying.

_I'm not gonna die now! I am Night Fury and few scratches are not enough to bring me down._

He tried to look around, but as soon as he opened his eyes he regretted it, as his right eye gave a burning sting of pain when he tried to open it. Toothless calmed down for a moment, and then tried again. He carefully opened the right eye, just slightly. No luck, it hurt like someone had just struck a stick in his eye.

_Oh no, what this means…?_ Toothless tried not to panic, but it was hard to do. He tried a different approach to his problem: he used his right paw to feel the eye from the outside. His paw hit something thin sticking out from it. A tooth. Frostbite's thin, needle-like tooth. One tooth. In his eye. There was a freaking TOOTH sticking out from HIS EYE!

Toothless was absolutely shocked. Millions of thoughts were circling in his head: _No! My beautiful eye… What will Hiccup do? What does he say to his one-eyed dragon? Why this had to happen to me? Maybe he doesn't love me anymore… a hideous sight I have to be after all. No, that's stupid! Hiccup won't abandon me, ever!_

Toothless continued to struggle against himself until his mind was blank. Then the pain filled everything; his leg, wing, eye and head, and all the other minor wounds were burning. It was too much for a dragon to bear, and Toothless' only escape route was to give up to the all-devouring darkness.

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I was somewhat tired when I wrote this, I hope there's no mistakes. Not too many chapters left, now keep reviewing :)


	10. Ice and Fire

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**A/N: 10th chapter is up. Things are pretty dark here, but could one expect anything less from fierce dragons? This one is told mainly from Fireworm's POV, with some Hiccup and even Frostbite mixed in.  
Thanks for reviewers... oh wait, I mean reviewer. (Why don't ppl review more, it's not like you have to write a wall of text?) But yeah, thanks Darkdagers :)**

DISCLAIMER: Not mine. What do you mean "what isn't mine?", I think the answer is obvious...

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Chapter 10: Ice and Fire

Fireworm stopped to sniff. She was now sure that she smelled a faint trait of Snotlout's scent. She couldn't hold herself back any longer; she had to see her human, had to make sure that he was all right. She sprinted across the large cave, ignoring the shouting Hiccup that she had left behind. The boy could wait, now it was only important for her to find Snotlout. He would be okay, the Night Fury had promised to protect him after all, so there was no need to worry, was there?

At the back part of the cave was another tunnel leading deeper in the mountain. Fireworm could smell that Snotlout had gone there. What she didn't like was that the scent of the Ruthless Frostbites was all over there. She sneaked in the frozen tunnel, following her nose. This tunnel was nothing like the one they had come in. No, this was far curvier and a bit spacier. Also this one's walls, ceiling, floor, all was covered in glittering ice, which was scratched by some large claws.

_Why has he gone here…? There's nothing good at the end of this tunnel._

The scent of the teen was getting a bit stronger and after few more curves Fireworm could see her human. The Viking was standing there, holding his mace high on air like he was going to hit something in front of him. His other arm was in a position like he was trying to cover himself from something. Except that there was nothing else there. In addition, Snotlout was still, very still. Too still. Fireworm felt her heart beat like crazy when she approached the teen. He was just standing there like a statue. _No…_ Light was reflecting from him like he was made of glass. _No._ Actually, not glass but ice. _NO!_

It was true, she couldn't deny it. Snotlout was frozen with a fierce expression on his face, charging against now long gone opponent. He would never move again. The reality was unbearable; Fireworm let her fire rise up with her anger. She let her fire burst out like never before: she burned the whole tunnel; she melted the ice, burned the walls and scorched the ground, she let her fire burn everything at her reach except the teen.

When her gas was running low she cut the flow of fire and closed her jaws. This was not what she was supposed to do, burning some rocks. Snotlout had been everything to her; she had been a prisoner in a small cage for a long time in miserable conditions, and he had come to free her. He had been so gentle and understanding, he had treated her like no one before. Now he was gone, her savior, friend, only one who really understood her.

Fireworm nuzzled the Snotlout's body that was now lying on ground after beginning to melt. Never would she saw again the smile on his face that made her life worth of living. Never again… never… she could do nothing that would change this. Her whole world had collapsed; there was nothing left for her anymore. No, actually there was one thing she had to do before she could follow her human to the void. One thing she had to do, as a final favor to Snotlout: she had to revenge! Fireworm welcomed the rising anger as it replaced the pain she felt in her heart. Flames of hatred were burning in her heart, pure wrath giving her power. Revenge was now her only purpose; she would kill those that were responsible of her human's death, or she would die trying to do that. Revenge. Nothing else but revenge. She made a long, vibrating screech and darted deeper into the tunnel.

_I hope you are prepared, bitch, I'm gonna rip off your limbs one by one!_

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The female Frostbite's pupils narrowed in hatred when she heard a screech echoing from the tunnel to her chamber. She could tell that the voice belonged to the Monstrous Nightmare that had taken away the thing that she loved most: her mate. He hated every single red scale of that disgusting beast; she would kill it slowly and painfully… no, that was not enough punishment for it. No amount of physical pain could make the Nightmare feel the same amount of suffer that she was feeling. She could try to feed it alive to her hatchlings, though. Then they could have a revenge for their father, too. It sounded good enough, but first she would take out it eyes like she had done to the pathetic Night Fury, which she had left to die in its wounds. She hoped that that black devil would suffer for a long time before dying, it had deserved every bit of pain that it had.

Claws snapping on icy surface waked the Frostbite mother from her thoughts. She gestured her hatchlings to get behind her, then she prepared to face the thing that she hated most. It wasn't long before the red Nightmare appeared from the tunnel, growling at her furiously. She answered with a wrath-filled snarl, letting her cold hate materialize in her throat. The Nightmare was aware of the situation and countered her mist with its fire. She roared her anger at its face; she knew too well that her ice-breath was not meant for direct combat but for surprise attacks. But it didn't matter; freezing would have been far too gentle death for it.

The fool of a dragon charged straight against her, before the smoke had diminished. Like it had any chance, she was at least two times larger than it was.

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A good while passed before Hiccup was able to think somewhat properly again, it was like his brains were jammed. Gods how much he wanted to take Toothless' place as the one lying there severely wounded, with pierced eye. Why the gods were so unfair! What had Toothless done to deserve this?

_Nothing, it's all my fault! I could have figured out something else than this trip! Punish me, it was MY decision, therefore it's ME who should be suffering now!_ No answer, nothing happened. _Don't you listen to what I am saying!_

Toothless wailed and let his head to rest on his forepaws again.

_He must have lost lots of blood, what I am doing; I should be helping him already!_, Hiccup panicked.

"I'm not gonna lose you bud. Everything will be fine, just hold on for a bit longer, and try to keep your eyes… eye open. I'll send Astrid to get medical supplies." Hiccup scratched Toothless behind the ear, just like the Night Fury liked it. "I'll never leave you like that again, just try to hold on", he whispered.

"ASTRID! ASTRID, WHERE ARE YOU? ASTRID, COME HERE!"

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Flames, flames and fire. Real, hot flames and flames of hatred. Fireworm was burning, both literally and figuratively. She enjoyed the groans and hisses of the larger dragon when her claws made their way through its weak underside. She enjoyed the feel of flesh giving up in front of her talons. She enjoyed the smell of blood that was pouring from the wounds that she had inflicted. She enjoyed the sight of a ripped-off wing that was lying on the ground. That creature had taken away her life, and there was nothing else that she could enjoy anymore than its torment.

Fireworm leaped backwards and avoided a slashing tail. The Frostbite growled and whipped its tail again, but she was faster, again. It had trusted in its size, thought that it would be a major advantage to it. Hah. She was quick and agile, and that clumsy, pathetic ice-breather could never land a hit on her. Like ice could ever have a chance to win over fire. She snarled irritatingly to the Frostbite. This was almost over, she could leave now and it would die in blood loss, but she preferred to kill it with her own claws.

It charged one last time. Fireworm was ready and as it closed in, she ducked under its head and leaped up, shutting her jaws tightly around its throat. _For Snotlout!_ Blood was flowing down her jaws, in her mouth, pouring on ground; blood was everywhere. The large dragon staggered and fell. Her revenge had colored its almost-white scales to deep crimson.

Some terrified whines coming from back of the chamber gained her attention. There were three sky blue Ruthless Frostbite hatchlings, about the size of a pony, seeking protection from each other. Fireworm looked at the hatchlings. They were so weak and helpless; she could kill them all in a blink of an eye. Why to bother though, as she could just as well leave them to starve here? _Decided and done_, she thought as she walked out of the chamber, over the cooling body of the cold dragon. The murderer was dead, but her revenge was not yet complete. The Frostbite was not only thing that was responsible of Snotlout's death, so her flames would have to burn once more.

_I'll enjoy nothing more than ripping the heart out of the cursed traitor, if he still dares to be alive!_

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**The story is now coming to an ending, expect the final chapter to be up tomorrow. While waiting for that, you can review and try to affect the ending, lol :P**


	11. Fate

**A/N: The final chapter... It have been fun to write this, thanks for all the reviewers :D**

**DISCLAIMER: Yeah, not mine.**

**UPDATE! psi567: I'm sorry, it was not only a little rushed, but a lot rushed as I didn't want to wait two weeks to release it. I breaked the chapter in two pieces and tweaked them, there's not much changed in this one but be sure to read the epilogue :)**

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**Chapter 11: Fate**

There were now only two of them, after Astrid had left with Daggermouth a while ago to get necessary supplies such as bandages to tie Toothless' wounds. Unsurprisingly, Hiccup was blaming himself of being stupid enough not to bring them with him in the first place. Toothless was trying to relax and ignore his sore body and stinging pain in his head. He had hard time fighting the blackness that was creeping upon him as soon as he didn't focus in keeping it away.

Hiccup was cleaning his badly-injured leg when Toothless heard something coming from where the Frostbite had retreat. It didn't sound heavy enough to be the Frostbite though, so he wasn't sure if it was a threat or not. Seconds later a red figure emerged from behind the boulders. Toothless recognized it as the Monstrous Nightmare that went by the name of Fireworm, but Hiccup was too concentrated to his job to pay attention to her arrival.

Toothless immediately noticed that something was wrong with Fireworm. Not only the obvious thing: that her normally bright red scales were now mostly crimson in color, but also her eyes; that were full of loss and sorrow, but also hate and wrath. Toothless knew what must have happened; there was no other logical explanation. He also knew what would happen next, seeing the fury in her eyes there was no questioning about it.

Without warning he folded his left wing, capturing Hiccup between his wing and side. He shouldn't have to witness this as it would be too ugly to see.

"Toothless, what are you doing? Let me go you silly reptile", Hiccup tried to protest, but Toothless refused as this was for his own good.

Fireworm was approaching, head bent low and back arching high, teeth bared viciously. Toothless used all his willpower to get his hurting, aching body to obey him. Slowly and gnashing his teeth in pain he managed to get on his feet. Toothless snapped at the Nightmare, but winced when the right side of his head sent stinging protests against such of a gesture. It was not much a use to try to stand in front of the Nightmare, when only opening his jaws was so hard to him; he could as well be considered as a corpse now.

_I can't betray Hiccup like this now, after giving a hope of survival._ But there was not much he could do to change his fate, no; actually there was _nothing_ that he could do to prevent it. Not to say he wouldn't deserve it after breaking his promise, after all, if things would be other way around he wouldn't hesitate to shred trough Fireworm. Toothless let his head go down as he submitted to his fate. Only standing for half of a minute had drained all the strength he had, and now there was only one thing he had to concentrate in: to stop the harsh realism from reaching Hiccup.

Fireworm growled loudly at the standing, seriously wounded Night Fury. She had trusted the life of her rider to it and it had betrayed her trust! She would enjoy the feeling of her claws ripping through the black hide, the feeling of her vengeance. But. Something didn't feel right in this; the Night Fury was weak, very weak. It would probably die in a few slashes, and what was the point of the revenge if she couldn't get some sort of enjoyment out of it? Fireworm snarled in frustration. If she would kill it now, she would be just letting it out of its misery, and what kind of justice would that be? No, she had to wait for better opportunity, as hard as it would be.

She roared her anger, frustration, sorrow, pain, and wrath, everything at the Night Fury's face. To her great delight she noticed that it had lost its right eye. _Wait your fate in darkness!_ Fireworm slashed the left side of the Night Fury's face with her wing-claws, before darting off and vanishing from the scene.

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**I have already started the work on a sequel, expect the first chapters soon :)**


	12. Epilogue

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**A/N: So this is truly the end of the story, but as I mentioned before, I have sequel in the works.**

DISCLAIMER: Is. Not. Mine.

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Epilogue

Toothless was curled up on comfortable blankets and was enjoying the warmth of the fire. It felt good when he could relax without his body hurting from everywhere. Sure his leg was still pretty sore and his right wing was splinted and he wouldn't fly for weeks, and the eye… well, Hiccup had sewed in a nice eye patch that was the exact same shade of black that his skin was, to cover the now empty eye socket. Toothless was already beginning to adjust to life as a single-eyed dragon. It was not easy; his body felt somewhat clumsier now and he had some problems of estimating distances, which was quite annoying as he could now actually miss his target, thus losing the ability he was so infamous for.

Oh, and then were scars all over his body; Toothless was fairly confident that there was no lady Night Fury that could resist his appearance now. His head was somewhat covered by the curved scar that was left from the Frostbite's bite, and then he had these two cool (according to Fishlegs) scratch marks that went over his left eyelid. It was good that he had closed his eye just in time; otherwise he would be blind now.

Toothless twitched his ears when he heard door slammed shut. He tilted his head and saw that his human had come home. Toothless purred a greeting to Hiccup.

"Hey Toothless, are you feeling any better?" Hiccup asked and sat down on the floor, next to him. Toothless licked him to face and grinned, and Hiccup smiled faintly. It was so good to see Hiccup smiling; he had been so depressed over the weeks after the ship had got them home from the Deathwhisper Island. Toothless really didn't remember a lot from those weeks; he had been unconscious for most of the time. But he did remember how Hiccup had been next to him all the time, doing his best to help him. It had been a small miracle that he survived, or so Hiccup had said, but he was a Night Fury after all and he was supposed to be tough.

Hiccup had been really tough, too. Toothless couldn't forget how pale Hiccup had been when Snotlout's body was carried to the ship… he could see the sorrow shadowing the boy's face even now. Only time could heal the wounds, and even then there would be scars left… but Toothless was determined to make his best to make Hiccup feel better.

Hiccup gently rubbed Toothless' chin and he let his purr get louder, gosh how much he wanted to be like this forever, without need to worry over anything. But there was one thing preventing his happiness, other than Hiccup's feelings that is. A shadow had been cast over his future, a shadow that Hiccup wasn't even aware of, or at least he wasn't fully aware of it. The worry was Fireworm. Toothless wasn't sure why she had let him live back then at the cave, but he was sure that the Nightmare would return for her revenge sooner or later, and he would have to face her then; there was no other way around this situation. Monstrous Nightmares were worthy opponents even normally, and now he had one after him that had nothing to lose… he'd have to be very cautious from now on.

However, Toothless didn't want to think about that right now. For a first time in weeks he was having a somewhat-good feeling and a good time with his human, and he didn't want to ruin the moment with such a negative thoughts. So he shook the worries off his mind, closed his eye and focused in listening the voice of the creature that he loved most, and nothing else could matter to him at the moment.

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The story continues in the _Fireworm's Revenge_ soon, which means today or tomorrow :D


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